The present invention relates to an improved hard candy, more specifically, relates to an improve hard candy using bulking sweetener agents and doctoring agents that give acceptable clarity, cold flow and stickiness formation stability, while being less cariogenic than traditional sucrose and corn syrup hard candy and while not causing gastrointestinal disturbances.
Consumers like hard candy. Hard candy is sometimes called boiled, glass, amorphous, or rock candy. Typical forms of hard candy are lollipops and lozenges. Hard candy can be transparent, translucent, or opaque, with transparent being preferred by consumers. These confectionary products dissolve slowly in the mouth and deliver flavor and sweetness as they dissolve. They also crunch when chewed, that is, they give an audible sound as they break into smaller pieces when chewed. Additional ingredients, such as flavors and sensates, can be added to the candy formula and they too can be delivered slowly as the hard candy dissolves during sucking or more quickly when chewed and the resulting smaller pieces dissolve.
Hard candy is a food product that is formed by a) heating a mass consisting of sweeteners at least to its boiling point in order to remove water and create a supersaturated solution, b) cooling the heated mass to thicken it, c) forming the mass into individual pieces, and then d) cooling the pieces to room temperature. The preferred combination of ingredients of the cooked mass are such that the combination creates a cooked mass that can be poured when hot into molds or onto flat or semiflat surfaces (where the candy will harden as it cools), or can be sheet and/or shaped when partially cooled using a drop roller, rotary cutter, or other forming apparatus.
By “hard”, it is meant that the candy is firm, non-flexible, and non-deforming at room temperature (e.g., 25° C.). The hard mass could contain some crystalline material, though crystalline material reduces candy clarity and the preferred hard candy is translucent. To be commercially acceptable, the hard candy needs to have a non-sticky surface and stable shape, both upon cooling to room temperature and after a reasonable storage at a reasonable relative humidity, that is, the hard candy must be at least as stable as sucrose:corn syrup hard candy at a 80:20 dry solids wt. % ratio.
Typically, hard candy contains one or more bulking sweetener agents, one or more doctoring agents, and usually additional components such as flavors, sensates, colors, and high intensity sweeteners. High intensity sweeteners (e.g., aspartame, sucralose) are added to hard candies to adjust the sweetness to meet particular market preferences. High intensity sweeteners are used in particular when the bulking sweetener agents are less sweet than sucrose.
Both bulking sweetener agents and doctoring agents supply volume and weight to hard candy. The bulking sweetener agent supplies the primary dissolvable mass, which creates a syrup-like solution in the mouth during sucking. Doctoring agents also can supply a dissolvable mass, which creates a syrup-like solution in the mouth. This syrup-like solution is what carries the flavors and sensates to the tongue. Both the bulking sweetener agent and doctoring agent must be chosen such that they will not mask the perception of flavors and sensates.
Typically, the bulking sweetener agent is combined with water and then heated, cooked or boiled to create a supersaturated solution. As the supersaturated solution cools it forms an amorphous, glass state, which then hardens as it cools. Under certain conditions, the bulking sweetener agent will crystallize from this glass state, which causes defects in the hard candy due to loss of clarity and changes in candy texture perceived during chewing and sucking. The key role of the doctoring agent is to interfere with the bulking sweetener agent's tendency to form crystals as the bulking sweetener agent mass cools without causing defects such as softening the candy or creating surface stickiness.
Doctoring agents additionally influence hard candy stability during storage by controlling the water present in the candy, the water being present due to lack of evaporation during heating, cooking, or boiling or absorption during storage. Most doctoring agents and some bulking sweetener agents are hygroscopic and tend to absorb water during storage, especially under high humidities. Excess water in a hard candy that is not controlled by the doctoring agent will start to dissolve the hard candy contents and the hard candy will deform, flow, and/or spread, a situation called “cold flow”. The candy could also become sticky as the water dissolves sweetener on the outer surface of the hard candy.
When the bulking agent is very fast crystallizing (such as with isomaltulose and erythritol) a delicate balance is needed between the ratio of bulking sweetener agent and doctoring agent. More doctoring agent will prevent the bulking sweetener agent crystallization, but too much doctoring agent will cause its own defects, including: a) preventing the bulking sweetener agent glass state from hardening, and/or b) increasing the absorption of water by the hard candy during storage causing cold flow and/or surface stickiness.
Sucrose is the traditional bulking sweetener agent for hard candy, with corn syrup being the traditional doctoring agent partnered with it. Sucrose, water, and corn syrup are traditionally heated, cooked, or boiled until there is less than 4% water in the mass, and then cooled. The mass can be shaped by pouring it into molds or onto a flat or semiflat surface and letting it cool to room temperature, or the mass can be shaped by cooling it to a malleable, semi-plastic stage and forming it into pieces with a drop roller, rotary cutter (i.e. pair of rollers or belts with opposing concave openings), or other forming apparatus. Sucrose is hygroscopic, especially while in an amorphous, glass state. Corn syrup is hygroscopic also, but it has a high capacity to absorb water because of its long and short carbohydrate chains, which allows corn syrup to control the free water in a hard candy. Corn syrup, with its long and short carbohydrate chains, can also physically interfere with sucrose crystallization.
A current consumer concern with sucrose based hard candy is cariogenicity. Most sugars (including sucrose, maltose, fructose, and dextrose) are cariogenic. Dental caries is an infectious disease which damages the structure of teeth. To not create dental caries is to be non-cariogenic. Non-cariogenicity or “tooth friendliness” of a substance such as a saccharide or a saccharide derivative may be determined by means of intraoral pH telemetry such as used by Tooth Friendly International, a non-profit organization. In a standard procedure, plaque pH is measured in at least four persons during and for 30 minutes after consumption of a substance to be tested with a plaque-covered electrode. Products which do not lower plaque pH below 5.7, under the test conditions, are considered to lack cariogenic potential. A consumer preferred hard candy is non-cariogenic.
Efforts have been made to improve the healthiness of hard candy. With the goal of reducing cariogenicity, hard candy products have been made with reduced sugar content. Other sugars, including dextrose, fructose, and maltose, have been used to make sugar based hard confections, giving similar benefits to that of sucrose by making a hard candy that is sweet and non-laxative and having similar stability to cold flow and stickiness formation as sucrose. The doctoring agent is usually corn syrup (sometimes with a higher fructose or maltose concentration). Corn syrup keeps the dextrose, fructose, or maltose from crystallizing, and the corn syrup absorbs free water in the hard candy mass. All of these sugars are fermentable in the mouth and may lead to dental caries. These sugars also effect blood glucose levels and have limited use by diabetics.
Sorbitol and isomalt are polyols that have been used in an attempt at making healthier hard candy that is less cariogenic than typical hard candy made with sucrose and corn syrup at a 80:20 dry solids wt. %. As both of these bulking sweetener agents are hygroscopic and are quick to crystallize from a molten or supersaturated state, a doctoring agent needs to be combined with them to make commercially acceptable hard candy, that is, hard candy that is at least as stable to cold flow and stickiness formation as hard candy made with sucrose and corn syrup at a 80:20 dry solids wt. %. A common doctoring agent is hydrogenated starch hydrolysate (HSH), which is a sugar-free syrup containing polyols of various sizes, mostly sorbitol and/or maltitol. As with corn syrup combined with sucrose, HSH can interfere with sorbitol and isomalt crystallization and absorb free water in the heated, cooked, or boiled candy mass. The combination of sorbitol or isomalt with HSH does create a heated, cooked, or boiled mass that can be poured into molds or onto flat or seimiflat surfaces, where it will harden, or them be shaped by a drop roller, rotary cutter, or other forming apparatus. Though these polyols materials are non-cariogenic and are less caloric than sucrose combined with corn syrup, they can cause gastrointestinal disturbance (e.g., laxation).
A disadvantage of many polyols is causation of gastrointestinal disturbances (such as “laxation”) upon consumption. Typically, a material is considered not to cause gastrointestinal disturbance (e.g., non-laxative), if such material is either substantially absorbed before entering the large intestine or passes though the large intestine substantially unchanged, in the quantities present in the product consumed. The amount of gastrointestinal disturbance or laxation distress experienced by a consumer of a hard candy typically depends on the sensitivity of the consumer, the specific polyol used in the hard confection, and the amount of hard candy consumed.
Therefore there is a need for a hard candy, which is reduced sucrose, does not create gastrointestinal disturbances, is reduced cariogenic (preferably non-cariogenic), while possessing a consumer acceptable texture and a storage stability at least that of traditional hard candy with sucrose and corn syrup at a 80:20 dry solids wt. %. Consumers do not want to sacrifice clarity and texture for less cariogenicity. Manufactures can not afford to make and sell candy with a shorter shelf life that that of current typical sucrose and corn syrup hard candy.